Wednesday, August 17, 2011

This week (Tues-Thurs) there's a free writing conference online. I spent yesterday eating waaay too many goldfish crackers and reading forums and watching vlogs by editors and agents and top authors.
It's been really helpful and inspiring. One class featured advice on great first lines of novels. (Thank you xxx. I'm going now to tweak my first line.) Another was a vlog (video log) by Beth Revis, the NYT Bestselling author of Across the Universe, about failure and success.

The forum with agent Sara Megibow was filled with great advice on how to build a platform. (What's that? It's basically an online presence.) She gave her opinions on the best way to go about that, and how not to be afraid of jumping in.

There was a very touching presentation by author Alan Silberberg about drawing from memory, and how he was able to mine his own emotions and past to create a middle grade comic strip type book, Milo: Sticky Notes & Brain Freeze, with a lot of heart and depth. Loved that.
It's primarily geared toward authors and aspiring authors who write Young Adult or Middle Grade novels or to those who write or illustrate picture books. However, I have found it useful in dozens of ways so far. Those who write for an adult audience won't be sorry they checked it out.

One of the coolest features of WriteOnCon is the option to put your query up for critique. Any participant can give you feedback, and hundreds of queries will get feedback from agents, editors, and other professionals. Shoooooweeee that's cool.

The organizers really did a spectacular job lining up true professionals and talent. If you haven't already logged onto it, you can still go over there and access all the information.

Did I mention the best part? It's FREE. Yup. Totally free. You can donate if you like, but there's no obligation.

So, how many goldfish crackers did I down during said sessions? Let's just say, I had the BIG CARTON nearby. Last month I stopped by the Pepperidge Farm Cookie Factory (a place I was fortunate to have a summer job during college. Mmmm.) They have a thrift/seconds store, and I got myself quite an array of Pepperidge Farm finery. White chocolate chunks? Yessiree. Mint Milanos? Who can resist those?

The best surprise was the goldfish, though. Now not only do they come in orange and parmesan and rainbow flavor, those little fishies have a brown cousin:

Lilacs. Sigh. I love them. They remind me of home and springtime. So perfect.

Contact:

To schedule a book signing, appearance, or interview with Ms. Griffith, please contact her publicist, Kirk Cunningham, at kirk@jollyfishpress.com

The Astonishing Coincidence

The afternoon I created this blog, making it as pink and frothy as it should be, I stepped away from my computer to make dinner and do family things. The doorbell rang. There stood a friend, Max. In his hand were six bags of...cotton candy. He had just whipped them up at home in his new cotton candy machine and brought them over to share.

It was a sign from the heavens that this blog must BE.

Please, enjoy!

Books by Jennifer Griffith

Delicious Conversation, A Little Sisterly Advice, Choosing Mr. Right

(All published by Spring Creek Books, a lovely company. Available at Amazon.com. You can use the link at the bottom of the page to buy new or used. Thanks a ton!)